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For round five of the 2017 MotoGP World championship the series heads to Le Mans in France. After round four factory Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi remains at the head of the championship, his lead over team mate Maverick Vinales now though reduced to just two points. Vinales in turn also holds a two point lead over reigning Champion Marc Marquez.

Both Rossi and Vinales endured a difficult weekend at the last round in Jerez, finishing 10 and 6 respectively.

Frustratingly for the pair Frenchman Johann Zarco finished ahead of both riders on his satellite Tech 3 Yamaha. Zarco is currently the top satellite rider in 6 place, he is also the highest placed class rookie. He will head to his home round confident that he can upset the establishment at the sharp end of the pack once more.

With four rounds gone only four riders have scored points in every race; Valentino Rossi, Jonas Folgar, Scott Redding and Hector Barbera. If Rossi is to mount a serious challenge in his bid to claim a tenth World title he will need not only to maintain that record in Le Mans bit improve drastically on his finishing place in Jerez.

The last time Rossi won a premier class race in Le Mans was 2008 and for the last three years he has finished in second place, behind Marquez in 2104, and then team mate Jorge Lorenzo in 2015 and 2016. Lorenzo had his best weekend to date on the Ducati in Jerez, finishing on the podium in third place. Ominously the view from within Ducati prior to the race in Jerezwas that Le Mans would be the circuit where the Ducati got into its stride and would be capable of challenging at the front.

Surprisingly Ducati are yet to achieve a win at Le Mans, the best they have achieved to date is second, in 2006 with Loris Capirossi and in 2012 with Valentino Rossi.

With Honda taking the top two places with Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, and Lorenzo third it was the first time since 2006 that Yamaha had not finished on the podium at the circuit. The win by Pedrosa ensure the diminutive Spaniard maintained his record of winning at least one race every season of competing in the top class.

Nicky Hayden was involved in a serious crash while on his bike in Rimini, Italy, earlier this weekCredit:
Rex Features/Migliorini/REX/Shutterstock

As seems to be the norm for Le Mans, the weekend looks as though it could be affected by rain. The current forecast is for fine weather on Sunday, race day but Friday and Saturdays practice and qualifying sessions are likely to be hit with thunderstorms. Fifteen MotoGP races have been staged at Le Mans with nine either starting in wet conditions or rain falling during the race.

With 62 points, Valentino Rossi is the lowest scoring series leader after four rounds since the introduction in 1993 of the current points scoring system. Rossi is also the first rider to head the championship after four rounds without winning a race since Nicky Hayden in 2006; the year he went on to win the world title. Sadly the ex world champion and current World Superbike competitor has suffered severe injuries in a cycling accident in Italy on Wednesday. At the time of writing he remains in intensive care. Our thoughts are with Nicky and his family at this time.

2017 MotoGP standings

1 Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 62 points

2 Maverick Vinales (Yamaha) 60

3 Marc Marquez (Honda) 58

4 Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 52

5 Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 41

6 Johann Zarco (Yamaha) 35

Moto2

Franco Morbidelli’s domination of the Moto2 class was finally broken in Jerez. After three straight wins the Italian crashed out in Spain with 17 laps remaining. This handed team mate Alex Marquez, Brother of MotoGP’s Marc his first win after 39 starts in the class. Morbidelli remains at the head of the championship. Thomas Luthi in second place gained eight points on Morbidelli with his eighth place finish. Similarly Miguel Oliveira gained 16 points, finishing third. The podium was completed by Italian Francesco Bagnaia who finished second. Luthi who has previously won twice in Moto2 at Le Mans, is the only current rider on the grid to have stood on the Le Mans Podium in the intermediate class.

Prior to the Austin round British Rider Danny Kent walked away from the Kiefer Racing team. His place has now been taken by fellow British rider Tarran MacKenzie, son of former Grand Prix Star and multiple British superbike champion Niall MacKenzie. Kent has a wildcard entry in Moto3 on board a KTM.

2017 Moto2 standings

1 Franco Morbidelli (Kalex) 75 points

2 Thomas Luthi (Kalex) 64

3 Miguel Oliveira (KTM) 59

4 Alex Marquez (Kalex) 49

5 Francesco Bagnaia (Kalex) 33

6 Takaaki Nakagami (Kalex) 32

Moto3

Joan Mir continues to lead the Moto3 championship following his third place finish in Jerez. Romano Fenato is currently second after following up his victory in Texas with a second place finish in Jerez.

John McPhee struggled in Jerez and could only qualify in 25 place. In the race he managed to get through half of the field and looked to be certain of a points scoring dinish when he suffered a low side crash at turn 1. The Scot has now slipped to fourth place and is 25 points behind the series leader.

The top six places in the championship are all taken by Honda riders with the next four places taken by KTM machinery.

The Jerez result means that for the first time since the series inception in 2012 there has be no KTM representation on the podium for four consecutive races.